A French soldier checks female passengers of a transport truck that arrived Thursday in Gao, Mali. Malian forces have stepped up security around the port and the main market in an effort to stop the infiltration of Mujao fighters.

TIMBUKTU, Mali — In their hurry to flee last month, al-Qaeda fighters left behind a crucial document: Tucked under a pile of papers and trash was a confidential letter, spelling out the terrorism network’s strategy for conquering northern Mali and reflecting internal discord over how to rule the region.

The document is an unprecedented window into the terrorist operation, indicating that al-Qaeda predicted the military intervention that would dislodge it in January and recognized its own vulnerability.

The letter shows a division within al-Qaeda’s Africa chapter over how quickly and how strictly to apply Islamic law, with its senior commander expressing dismay over the whipping of women and the destruction of Timbuktu’s ancient monuments.

Moreover, it leaves no doubt that despite a temporary withdrawal into the desert, al-Qaeda plans to operate in the region over the long haul and is willing to make short-term concessions on ideology to gain the allies it acknowledges it needs.

The nine-page document, found by The Associated Press in a building occupied by the Islamic extremists for almost a year, is signed by Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, the nom de guerre of Abdelmalek Droukdel, the senior commander appointed by Osama bin Laden to run al-Qaeda’s branch in Africa.

The clear-headed, point-by-point assessment resembles a memo from a chief executive to his top managers and lays out for his jihadists in Mali what they have done wrong in months past and what they need to do to correct their behavior in the future.

Droukdel, the emir of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, perhaps surprisingly argues that his fighters moved too quickly and too brutally in applying the Islamic law known as Shariah to northern Mali. Comparing the relationship of al-Qaeda to Mali as that of an adult to an infant, he urges them to be more gentle, like a parent:

“The current baby is in its first days, crawling on its knees, and has not yet stood on its two legs,” he writes. “If we really want it to stand on its own two feet in this world full of enemies waiting to pounce, we must ease its burden, take it by the hand, help it and support it until its stands.”

He scolds his fighters for being too forceful and warns that if they don’t ease off, their entire project could be thrown into jeopardy.

The letter is divided into six chapters, three of which the AP recovered, along with loose pages, on the floor of the Ministry of Finance’s Regional Audit Department. Residents say the building, one of several the Islamic extremists took over in this ancient city of sundried, mud-brick homes, was particularly well-guarded with two checkpoints and a zigzag of barriers at the entrance.

Droukdel’s letter is one of only a few internal documents between commanders of al-Qaeda’s African wing that have been found and possibly the first to be made public, according to University of Toulouse Islamic scholar Mathieu Guidere. It is numbered 33/234, a system reserved for al-Qaeda’s internal communications, said Guidere, who helps oversee a database of documents generated by extremists, including Droukdel.

“This is a document between the Islamists that has never been put before the public eye,” said Guidere, who authenticated the letter after being sent a two-page sample. “It confirms something very important, which is the divisions about the strategic conception of the organization. There was a debate on how to establish an Islamic state in North Mali and how to apply Shariah.”

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